39: Chapter 39 Inner World

Decades had passed in the Cultivation Divine Kingdom since he awakened.

The Cultivation Divine Kingdom had expanded from its initial one hundred square kilometers to approximately four hundred thousand square kilometers, an increase of several thousand times in area.

With the central plains as the core, surrounded by the Five Elements Array Eye: Metal mountain peaks, ancient forests, the Twilight Spirit Spring mountain range, the Earth Fire Furnace, and deep mining areas, the five elements layout was basically complete.

There were over three thousand six hundred clansmen in total, including five hundred nineteen at the Foundation Establishment Stage and over three thousand one hundred in the late stage of Qi Refining, with the five elements distributed relatively evenly.

The area of the Land of Gods and Demons had expanded in sync with the Cultivation Divine Kingdom, also reaching approximately four hundred thousand square kilometers.

Gray-black mist enveloped the entire world, with the sky half golden holy light and half dark purple abyss.

The core area, the Twilight Spirit Spring cluster, had reached fifteen springs, and at the intersection of light and dark, twilight light bands were woven into a net.

There were over seven thousand clansmen in total, with over three thousand five hundred angels and over three thousand five hundred succubi.

Shen Ye finished recording the data for both divine kingdoms one by one and closed the logbook.

Footsteps sounded from the corridor outside, coming closer, and then the dormitory door was pushed open.

Liu Yang was carrying two plastic bags, with steam rising from the openings.

"Spirit plant buns fresh out of the cafeteria steamer!"

He tossed the bags onto the table and grabbed one himself, tossing it from hand to hand because it was burning hot, hissing as he drew in cold air. "The entire cafeteria went crazy watching the livestream of your match against Zheng Chuan today. The auntie selling the buns was so busy watching the light screen that she oversteamed a whole cage of buns; the bottoms were all burnt."

Shen Ye took the other bun and took a bite.

The spirit plant filling was chopped very finely, mixed with minced spirit beast meat, and the juice was scalding.

He chewed slowly without speaking.

Liu Yang swallowed one in a few bites and grabbed another.

"Where did you go after you beat Zheng Chuan? I waited for you at the contestant tunnel exit for ages but didn't see you."

"Qin Shu was looking for me."

"Instructor Qin? What did he say?"

"He told me to finish it as fast as possible."

Liu Yang almost choked on his bun.

"You call that not fast enough? Do you know how long it took from the moment the referee's hand fell to the collapse of Zheng Chuan's Kingdom Projection? Someone in the cafeteria was timing it with a stopwatch and said your time was shorter than Lu Chuan's average time in the group stage. Lu Chuan was fighting B-rank and C-rank opponents, but you were fighting an A-rank!"

Shen Ye took a bite of the bun.

Zheng Chuan's fast attack was indeed fast; the S-shaped trajectory of his Wind Elemental had not been met by any opponent in the group stage who could survive the first wave of the charge.

But his fast attack was built on the high-speed turning of the Wind Elemental. Once the turning trajectory was figured out, guided, and converged by someone, 'fast' became 'fragile'.

"That Jin Lin of yours, that last sword strike."

Liu Yang put down his bun and gestured with both hands. "It stabbed straight down from the air, the sword radiance turning into a small golden dragon, piercing into the center of the Wind Elemental cluster. The Ring Sword Intent erupted, and hundreds of Wind Elementals had their cores shattered simultaneously. Do you know what the reaction in the stands was? Everyone was stunned. The group from City No. 3 High School who were beating the drums forgot to let their drumsticks fall, holding them in mid-air."

Shen Ye didn't speak.

That sword strike by Jin Lin was something he had realized only after practicing countless days and nights in front of the sword stele.

The Twilight Sword Qi was the Twilight Sword Intent that had been continuously operating for decades on the Five Elements Array Eye: Metal in the Land of Gods and Demons. Every day when Jin Lin practiced his sword, he used his golden dragon scales to touch it—from being repelled to being able to make contact, from being able to make contact to being able to guide it, and from being able to guide it to being able to fuse with it.

No one taught him; he tested it out bit by bit on his own.

"And Mu Sheng."

Liu Yang became more excited as he spoke. "Her twenty-one vines grew out from the cracks in the Law Tablet, growing along the bodies of the Wind Elementals. Wherever the Wind Elementals turned, the vines bent. Su Wanqing from City No. 1 High School was sitting in the stands, holding her data board, and her hands were shaking. She's from the Spirit Plant Garden herself; she knows the value of that move best."

Shen Ye recalled what Su Wanqing had said when analyzing Zheng Chuan earlier: the S-shaped trajectory of the Wind Elemental was tricky, and there was a very brief lag in the core during every turn.

Mu Sheng's guiding vines did not attack the core; she simply curved the vines along the arc of the Wind Elemental's turn, making them turn more smoothly and faster.

The Wind Elementals thought they were still weaving freely, but in reality, every trajectory had already been pre-set by the vines.

This wasn't binding; it was guidance.

Mu Sheng had adapted it from Elder Quan's water flow guidance technique.

"And Elder Quan."

Liu Yang said, "The old man had his hands tucked into his sleeves, and when he spread the water mist across the entire arena, hundreds of streams of water wrapped around the Wind Elementals, guiding their charge trajectory off-course just like a river guiding falling leaves. Zheng Chuan's face went pale at that moment."

Shen Ye finished the last bite of the bun.

Elder Quan had observed the water flow by the spirit spring for decades, realizing the path of the spiral from the tiny whirlpools that naturally emerged from the spirit spring.

His way of guiding the Wind Elementals was exactly the same as how the spirit spring water guided falling leaves—not by forcibly changing the direction, but by following the momentum of the opponent and steering it off-course bit by bit at a very small angle.

"Right."

Liu Yang dug a bottle of spirit fruit juice out of the plastic bag, twisted it open, and took a sip. "Su Wanqing had someone send over a batch of materials, saying they were raw materials for the foundation establishment pill. I signed for them for you and put them in the storage locker downstairs. The list is with her."

Shen Ye nodded.

That batch of raw materials included spirit plant essences Su Wanqing had transferred from the provincial capital, moonlight vine petals grown in his own spirit field, high-concentration spirit spring water condensed by Elder Quan leading a hundred-man team of Dharma cultivators, and several rare auxiliary materials scavenged from the black market.

A hundred-man team of Fire Spirit Root Artificers was currently trial-producing the first batch of foundation establishment pills at the Earth Fire Furnace. If successful, one foundation establishment pill could increase the success rate of a late-stage Qi Refining clansman breaking through to the Foundation Establishment Stage by several percent.

Five hundred Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators were just the beginning.

Liu Yang finished the spirit fruit juice and threw the empty bottle into the recycling bin.

"Your next round is against Fang Yan. You beat him once in the group stage, but I watched his match against He Shuping today, and the chest cavity structure of his Rock Giant has completely changed. The core used to be fixed right in the center, but now it seems like it can move within the chest cavity."

"Triangular cycle."

Shen Ye said, "Spirit power flows from the core first to the right shoulder, then back to the left leg, and finally returns to the core. The core can move to any node in the triangle."

Liu Yang was stunned for a moment.

"How did you know that?"

"I saw it."

Liu Yang opened his mouth, then swallowed back the words, 'You really are boring.'

When Shen Ye said 'I saw it,' his tone was as flat as usual, but Liu Yang knew that he must have watched the recording of Fang Yan's match repeatedly, deducing the structure of the triangular cycle bit by bit from the flow pattern of the spirit power in the chest cavity every time the Rock Giant threw a punch, took a step, or took a hit.

"Can you win?"

Liu Yang asked.

Shen Ye thought for a moment.

Fang Yan's triangular cycle could indeed defend against Elder Quan's external infiltration—Steam Explosion required finding the precise location of the core from the outside, and the moving core would significantly reduce the efficiency of the search.

But Jin Lin's Ring Sword Intent erupted from the inside; once the sword intent was poured into the chest cavity, it spread in all directions simultaneously.

Moving the core took time, and no matter how fast it was, it couldn't be faster than the eruption of the sword intent.

"Yes."

He said.

Liu Yang looked into his eyes, then let out a sigh of relief and leaned back against the chair.

"That's good. I was over at the City No. 1 High School stands today and heard Su Wanqing and Lu Chuan talking. Lu Chuan said that in your match against Zheng Chuan, you didn't give Zheng Chuan a single second to take the initiative from start to finish. He said this sense of rhythm isn't trained; it's fought out."

Shen Ye didn't speak.

Lu Chuan was right.

In Qin Shu's projection training, the military-grade Void Race Wind Elemental mutants were faster than Zheng Chuan, their trajectories were trickier than Zheng Chuan's, and there were more of them than Zheng Chuan.

He had had his defensive line torn apart by those mutants in the projections countless times. After every failure, Qin Shu did only one thing—restart the projection and do it again.

Rhythm isn't practiced; it's died for.

"Alright, get some rest."

Liu Yang stood up, cleaned up the empty plastic bags on the table, and stopped when he reached the door. "Oh right, the cafeteria auntie asked me to tell you that you played well and that you'll get an extra spirit beast egg with your breakfast tomorrow."

Shen Ye looked at him.

Liu Yang grinned, closed the door, and left.

The dormitory fell silent.

Shen Ye sat in the chair, looking out the window.

The lights of the athlete village merged into one in the night, and the dome of the gymnasium in the distance glowed with a grayish-white light band.

The wall engraved with names was on the side of the plaza; it couldn't be seen from this angle, but Shen Ye knew it was there.

Fang Zhen, Gu Yan, He Man.

Three names, three endings.

He stood up and walked to the window.

His face was reflected on the glass, his expression very faint.

Liu Yang always said, 'You really are boring,' and Su Wanqing never said it, but the way she looked at him sometimes carried an implication of, 'How can you calculate everything?'

Qin Shu never commented on his personality; he just turned the data board around after every training session, letting him see his own progress and flaws.

Shen Ye placed his hand on the glass.

The palm felt cool.

It wasn't that he had no emotions.

On the day Jin Lin first touched the Twilight Sword Qi with his golden dragon scales in front of the sword stele, he had sat alone in the meditation room for a long time, his consciousness sunk into the divine kingdom, repeatedly replaying the scene of that moment—the instant the dragon scales made contact with the twilight, the two completely different sword intents did not repel each other, but instead, like two streams merging into the same valley, naturally blended together.

At that time, he had really wanted to tell someone about this.

Tell Liu Yang; Liu Yang would widen his eyes and say, 'Really? That's amazing,' and then turn around to post it on social media.

Tell Su Wanqing; Su Wanqing would analyze the combat value of this sword strike from a tactical perspective.

Tell Qin Shu; Qin Shu would nod and say, 'Continue.'

Tell Principal Zhou Wenyin; Principal Zhou would be silent for a moment and then say, 'Gu Yan was like that back then too.'

He didn't tell anyone.

That night, he sat alone in the meditation room; in the divine kingdom, Jin Lin practiced that sword strike repeatedly in front of the sword stele, and he repeatedly recalled that sword strike in the outside world.

The moment the two sword intents fused, the small golden dragon on Jin Lin's shoulder opened its eyes for the first time.

It wasn't the angry glare from battle, but the curiosity of a newborn dragon seeing this world for the first time.

At that moment, Shen Ye felt an emotion he had never felt before, coming through the conscious link from Jin Lin.

It wasn't battle intent, it wasn't loyalty; it was joy.

Pure, unadulterated joy, like the joy of a child who had made something they wanted with their own hands for the first time.

Shen Ye stood in front of the window of the meditation room, his face reflected on the glass, the corners of his mouth curving up without him knowing when.

It wasn't the kind of smile from winning a match; it was lighter, more unguarded.

After he realized he was smiling, he was stunned for a moment, and then the smile slowly faded away.

But it didn't fade completely; a little arc remained at the corners of his mouth.

On the day Mu Sheng's vines bloomed with small white flowers for the first time, he was eating lunch.

Liu Yang was sitting opposite him, gnawing on a spirit beast leg, complaining about the afternoon physical training class.

Shen Ye picked up a piece of spirit plant, and before he could bring it to his mouth, a soft white light suddenly flooded into the conscious link.

Mu Sheng was standing at the edge of the spirit field, all twenty-one vines extended in front of her, and tiny white flowers bloomed on the tips of the vines simultaneously.

She looked down at the flowers and reached out her fingertips to gently touch one of them.

The petals trembled slightly, as if responding to her touch.

Mu Sheng smiled.

It wasn't the respectful smile of a clansman toward a deity; it was the smile of a craftsman looking at a work they had tempered for countless days and nights finally taking shape—a smile that said, 'That's it, this is it.'

Shen Ye's chopsticks stopped in mid-air.

Liu Yang looked up at him: "What's wrong?"

"...Nothing."

Shen Ye put the spirit plant into his mouth and chewed slowly.

The taste of the spirit plant was the same as usual, but Mu Sheng's little white flower was still trembling slightly in the depths of his consciousness, the petals soft, the stamens tender yellow, and the vines emerald green.

He had seen countless plants in the divine kingdom; the spirit field was planted with moonlight vines, sword leaf orchids, and spirit gathering grass, every one of which was far more precious than that little white flower.

But those were resources.

This little white flower was one Mu Sheng had coaxed into existence bit by bit with the Law of Life; it was the first flower that had bloomed on her twenty-one vines.

During that afternoon's physical training class, Shen Ye ran the whole course, not maintaining a constant speed at the most energy-efficient rhythm as usual, but accelerating during the final sprint.

Liu Yang was panting in pursuit behind him, asking what kind of madness he was having.

Shen Ye didn't answer.

He just wanted to run faster.

Not for any tactical purpose, just purely wanting to run faster.

The day Elder Quan's three-spiral unification succeeded was late at night.

Shen Ye had just returned from projection training, covered in sweat, his spiritual sense so overdrawn that he was too lazy to even maintain the conscious link.

He lay on the dormitory bed, staring at the bed board of the upper bunk, ready to fall straight asleep.

A very faint ripple suddenly arose in the conscious link.

Elder Quan was sitting cross-legged by the spirit spring, the three spiral spirit springs in his palm having slowly rotated for decades, and at this moment, they finally merged into one.

It wasn't a simple superposition of three water flows; it was three spirals rotating simultaneously at different speeds, in different directions, and with different rhythms, like three independent rivers merging into the same sea, weaving into an inseparable undercurrent beneath the surface of the sea.

Elder Quan didn't smile.

He tucked his hands back into his sleeves, his white hair dampened by the water vapor and sticking to his back, and closed his eyes, letting out a long breath.

It was like he had finally finished something he had been doing for a very, very long time.

Shen Ye stared at the upper bunk's bed board; Liu Yang's snoring came down from above, as thunderous as ever.

He draped his arm over his forehead, his palm covering his eyes.

There was something stuck in his chest, not heavy, but warm.

Elder Quan had started observing the spirals of the spirit spring since the early stage of Qi Refining, realized the path of the spiral from natural whirlpools, and pushed from a single spiral to three spirals, taking decades.

No one had asked him to do so.

The instructions Shen Ye gave him had always been only one—'Continue the deduction.'

He hadn't asked what the use of the deduction was, hadn't calculated the return on investment, but just sat by the spirit spring every day, hands tucked in his sleeves, the three spirals in his palm slowly rotating.

Like an old man doing Tai Chi in the park, unhurried and unperturbed, not asking for the time of return.

Today, he had done it.

Shen Ye moved his arm from his forehead and pressed his palm against his chest.

His heartbeat was very steady.

He thought, he should go sit by the spirit spring for a while tomorrow morning.

Not to check on Elder Quan's deduction progress, just to sit for a while.

He turned over and buried his face in the pillow.

Liu Yang's snoring thundered above his head.

The moonlight shone in from outside the window, casting a grayish-white patch of light on the floor.

Shen Ye closed his eyes.

In the divine kingdom, the small dragon on Jin Lin's shoulder curled up in the crook of his neck and fell asleep, its dragon whiskers rising and falling gently with its breathing.

Mu Sheng's twenty-one vines were tucked into her sleeves, the little white flowers at the tips of the vines closed into buds, glowing faintly in the night.

Elder Quan sat by the spirit spring, the three-spiral unified water flow rotating slowly in his palm; he wasn't asleep, just sitting with his eyes closed, listening to the sound of the water.

Shen Ye moved his palm from his chest and placed it by his side.

His fingertips touched the bed sheet, the rough texture of the cotton fabric.

He thought, there would be an extra spirit beast egg with breakfast tomorrow.

The cafeteria auntie said so.